


The Pride of Lions

by Wildgoosery



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-05
Updated: 2011-04-05
Packaged: 2017-12-29 18:15:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1008503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wildgoosery/pseuds/Wildgoosery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't that Katara was bigoted, of course. She could see the value of diversity in her academic life. But certain places -- like the gold and crimson corridors of Gryffindor Tower -- were sacred. And watching Toph Bei Fong, heir to one of the oldest and most notoriously ruthless Slytherin families, be cheerfully sorted into her house was more than she could stand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pride of Lions

**Author's Note:**

> I seem to have written a Harry Potter/Avatar: The Last Airbender crossover. Don't worry, I'm properly ashamed of myself. Written for the [](http://avatarbigbang.livejournal.com/profile)[**avatarbigbang**](http://avatarbigbang.livejournal.com/)'s minibang, based on [this drawing](http://i.imgur.com/gqzJS.jpg) by [](http://panaili.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://panaili.livejournal.com/)**panaili**.

Katara had always thought of herself as an open-minded sort of witch. Her background hardly justified much in the way of putting on airs -- her mother had been a witch, true, but she'd died years ago, and Katara and her brother had been invited to Hogwarts only because of the foresight of their Muggle father, who had moved them to Aberdeen from Greenland for exactly this reason. And though she rarely socialized outside of Gryffindor, except to chat with her fourth-year Ravenclaw brother at meals when he wasn't being disgusting, she certainly didn't think _poorly_ of the other houses. She just didn't see much point in pretending to be ignorant of the obvious: that Gryffindor was the most prestigious house at Hogwarts, and that all of the greatest witches and wizards in the United Kingdom had once been sorted into its ranks.

So it wasn't that Katara was bigoted, of course. It wasn't that she couldn't see the value of diversity in her academic life. She appreciated that learning to live and work with the whole breadth of the Wizarding community was vital to her education.

But certain legacies could not be ignored. Certain places -- like the gold and crimson corridors of Gryffindor Tower -- were sacred. And watching Toph Bei Fong, heir to one of the oldest and most notoriously ruthless Slytherin families, be cheerfully sorted into the house of Minerva McGonagall, Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger....

Katara had nearly run out of the Great Hall, caught somewhere between tears and rage as the girl nonchalantly took her place at the Gryffindor table.

Another first year, a boy with gray eyes who had already been sorted, watched Katara curiously. "Do you know her?" he asked.

"No," said Katara, scowling down at her empty golden plate.

"I think she's blind," he went on.

"She is," said Katara. Gossip on the Hogwarts Express generally agreed that Voldemort had done the deed himself when Toph was a baby, her eyes cursed as punishment for some misstep of her widely-assumed-to-be-Death Eater parents. "Don't tell me you've never heard of the Bei Fongs."

He shrugged. "I grew up in a monastery. I didn't even know who Headmaster Roku was until he came to visit me. Why, are they important or something?" he went on, as if the previous sentence weren't completely absurd.

On another day, in a better mood, Katara would have asked him why the Headmaster had been paying him personal visits. At that particular moment, she preferred to stew obstinately in her resentment. "Not really. Whatever. It's nothing."

"If you say so," he said, then grinned as he pulled his wand out of his sleeve. "Hey, can I show you a cool charm I just learned?" He flicked the wand with more bravado than was probably necessary, his other hand splayed for effect. " _Ventus_!"

A gust of wind shot down the long wooden table, scattering napkins and schedules into the air above their heads, and the entirety of Gryffindor House craned their necks to see whose spell had gone awry. Seated only a half-dozen places away, Toph smirked insufferably as Katara tried to help snatch up bits parchment before they fluttered to the ground.

"Nice charm there, Windy Wand," she drawled, her milky eyes half-lidded.

Katara wished she was old enough to know wandless magic. She'd have set the other girl's hair on fire, but it would hardly do to lose points for Gryffindor before the welcoming feast was over. Sokka would never have let her hear the end of it.

***

In the weeks that followed that first night in the castle, Katara did manage to calm herself somewhat. She no longer had to sit on her hands to keep herself from hexing Toph at every opportunity, and she spent a minimum of time glowering at her bed's canopy at night in sleepless, impotent fury. But Toph had proven impossible to ignore entirely, and Katara could not help but keep a running tally of her offenses.

To begin with, she was loud and pushy, forever picking fights with older boys and crowing obnoxiously when she bested them. She avoided bathing whenever possible, as well as shoes, and would happily sit with her bare feet propped up on the hearth until Professor Hama, their head of house, ordered her off to the girls' showers. And rather than use any of the standard, unobtrusive methods for dealing with her blindness, she seemed to have invented a sort of magical echolocation, and her constant pings across the Common Room felt as if they were bouncing around the inside of Katara's skull.

But Katara would not descend to Toph's level. She would not allow a smelly, obnoxious, arrogant first year to get to her. Her own third year at Hogwarts had brought a daunting course load to keep in balance -- Charms with the impossible to please Professor Pakku, Defense Against the Dark Arts with an ever-more-alarming Professor Jeong Jeong, and the much-loathed Transfiguration with Professor Bumi chief among them -- and she simply did not have the luxury of wasting time or thought on short, spiteful brats who had nothing better to do than irritate other people. She would not be drawn in by the younger girl's antics. She would simply carry on as if a Bei Fong weren't blithely strolling about the castle in Gryffindor robes.

Such was Katara's conviction as she settled down in one of the large, squashy armchairs by the Common Room fireplace one evening in late September, her Charms textbook open in her lap and a drinking glass on the table in front of her. She raised her wand, hand positioned just so, and flicked the tip with the barest motion of her wrist. " _Aguamenti_!"

A jet of water sprang from the tip of wand, arced through the air, and filled the glass precisely halfway.

"Wow, you're really good at that!" said Aang in chipper tones, appearing from nowhere as he often did. "I can't seem to get the motion right."

Initially, Katara had resisted spending too much of her time with a boy so much younger than her -- first years and third years didn't generally mix, after all -- but Aang's relentless cheer had worn her down quickly enough. It wasn't as if she had many friends her own age, anyway, and she secretly enjoyed having an eager recipient of her tutelage.

"It's in the wrist," she said, filling the remainder of the glass as she demonstrated the charm a second time. Aang nodded, murmuring under his breath as he practiced the motion. " _Tergio_ ," said Katara. She siphoned the water from the glass with her wand, then looked to Aang expectantly.

Aang flicked his wand. " _Aguamenti_!"

In the moments following, two things happened in quick succession. First, the stream that poured from Aang's wand tip struck the glass with such force that it rolled off the table and smashed on the threadbare carpet. Second, the portrait hole swung open, and Toph Bei Fong strolled into the Common Room.

"Oops," said Aang, color rising to his cheeks. "I'm sorry-"

"It's my fault," said Katara brusquely, a mantra of _don't look at Toph don't look at Toph don't look at Toph_ already echoing through her mind. "It's an advanced charm, I shouldn't have tried to teach you."

"I'll get it next time," said Aang, kindly ignoring her condescension. "Here, I'll clean this up-"

"No, it's fine," said Katara, more sharply than she meant. She could feel Toph's magic reflecting off the inside of her forehead. " _Reparo_ ," she muttered, flicking her wand at the glass. The shards flew back together, but the result had a lumpy, unbalanced look to it. Behind her, she heard Toph chuckle.

"Here, I've got the rest of it!" said Aang. Still distracted by the effort of hating Toph with every molecule in her body, Katara didn't realize what he was doing until he'd already pointed his wand at the carpet. " _Tergio_!"

The spilled water flowed back into his wandtip. Unfortunately, several yards of thread followed close behind. Aang had unraveled at least a square foot of woven lions before he yelped and broke the connection, and by then Toph had graduated to full-throated laughter.

"Want me to fix that for you?" she asked as she wiped away a tear.

"No," snapped Katara, before Aang could say otherwise.

"Suit yourself," said Toph. She flopped down onto a battered armoire and kicked off her shoes, revealing sockless feet. Katara's fist clenched around her wand as she tried to remember the charm for textiles.

"It's _Telacreo_ ," said Toph, answering the unasked question. Katara felt a muscle in her face twitch.

"She's really good at Transfiguration," Aang murmured.

Katara scowled at the carpet. Part of her wanted to try _Reparo_ again out of spite, but she supposed that destroying a generations-old carpet wasn't worth it. " _Telacreo_ ," she said, the word almost a snarl. She watched the fabric reassemble itself, resenting both the spell for working and herself for having used it.

That finished, Katara hunched over her textbook, focusing deliberately on the pages. She had to learn these charms for her lesson tomorrow. Looking sheepish, Aang sunk back into his chair and started rummaging through his bag for his own homework.

They had managed several minutes of quiet study before Katara heard a telltale pop of low-level transfiguration across the room, closely followed by a titter of laughter from the second-years that were trading Chocolate Frog cards in the corner. In her peripheral vision, Katara saw that Aang was watching whatever Toph was up to, a guilty little smile on his lips. _Don't look,_ she told herself, hunching even lower. _Don't give her the satisfaction._

Another pop, and this time the laughter was much louder. Aang fidgeted, surreptitiously trying to get a better look.

After the third, Aang gave up the ruse entirely and knelt on his seat, watching over the back of the armchair. "Do Professor Bumi next!" said a voice that Katara recognized as Haru, a fifth year with whom she had once been enamored and who, in that moment, dropped precipitously in her estimation.

The next pop was met with full on applause. "I dunno," said Jet, another fifth year boy, whom Katara had obviously never liked in any way because he was an ass. "I don't think he looks crazy enough." More popping, more laughter, including a snort from Aang. "There! See, much better."

Hating Toph, her housemates, but most of all her own cursed weakness, Katara looked. Toph was crosslegged on her ottoman with her wand raised, a small crowd now gathered around her. They all stood facing the statue of Godric Gryffindor in the corner, which now bore a surprisingly good likeness of their Transfiguration Professor.

Katara stared, open-mouthed, temporarily unable to speak as offended fury boiled up inside her. Then she was on her feet, the Charms book landing with a thunk on the floor as she swept across the Common Room, shouldering the other students aside until she was standing next to Toph. The younger girl, who had been picking her toes thoughtfully as she bounced magical radar off her handiwork, cocked her head when Katara cleared her throat.

"What are you doing?" Katara demanded, arms crossed over her chest.

"Just improving the decor a little," said Toph, which elicited another ripple of mirth from the crowd.

"That is a statue of the founder of our house!" said Katara, her voice growing more shrill with every word. "That is _Godric Gryffindor_ , one of the greatest wizards to have ever lived!"

"More like Gryffin _snore_."

Behind her, Katara heard Aang snicker. She took another step forward, one hand slipping into her robes to take hold of her wand. Never before had she so desperately longed for a prefect's badge. "You're defacing a piece of Hogwarts history!" she snapped. "You should be grateful to even be in the same room as that statue!"

Toph frowned. "Look, Princess Perfect, I didn't ask to be in this stupid house."

" _Gryffindor isn't stupid!_ " Katara shrieked, her wand in a white-knuckled grip.

Toph rolled her milky-blue eyes. "You just keep telling yourself that." She raised her wand again, smirking at their gathered audience. "Any more requests?"

Katara grit her teeth. "Don't you dare."

"Maybe Professor Wu?" Toph went on, her want still at the ready. "I bet this guy would look really great with b-"

" _Expelliarmus!_ " Katara cried, all rational thought having abandoned her entirely.

" _Protego!_ " Toph shouted, quick enough that the jet of red light that shot from Katara's wand rebounded off the defensive spell and struck Haru square in the chest, his wand flying through the air as he toppled into a bookshelf.

Later on, Katara was unable to recall precisely what happened in the chaos of the next few seconds. Toph hit Katara with a leg-locker curse, Katara threw a badly-aimed bat bogey hex as she tried to keep her balance, and a stream of flying snot erupted out of some poor second year's nose, circling above their heads and filling the room with the sound of stickily beating wings. Undaunted by the fact that she was hopping about like a Hinkypunk with her legs stuck together, Katara fell back onto more familiar territory, aiming her wand straight at Toph's smug face and shouting " _Aguamenti_!" with all the force she could muster.

When Professor Hama stepped out of her chambers and into the Common Room, no doubt wondering about the noise, she was greeted with the sight of a very large pool of water, a sodden and furious Toph Bei Fong, and a toppled figure that appeared to be Katara beneath a dense layer of boils.

***

Professor Hama, Mistress of Astronomy and Head of Gryffindor House, had always made Katara uneasy. Her talent with Charms was said to rival Pakku's, although she never appeared to use them outside of the bare necessities of her duties. Instead, she seemed to have turned her magical abilities entirely to the crafting of an extensive collection of puppets, which hung in an ominous cabinet behind her desk and were rarely seen by students. Katara had known about them since before she left for school, as Hama and her grandmother had been friends as girls and the woman's odd hobbies were a matter of family gossip. She had even been a little curious as to what they might look like.

As she sat on the floor of Hama's office with a tin of polish beside her, a greasy rag in one hand and a naked wooden puppet in the other, she bitterly mourned her ignorance.

"I can't believe you got me stuck in detention," she muttered. "Two years without a spot on my record, and now-"

"In case you were wondering whether anyone cares," said Toph, seated with her own charge a few feet away, "The answer's 'no.'"

"Well of course _you_ don't care," said Katara. "I'm surprised you even bothered going to Kings Cross in September."

"You don't know what you're talking about," said Toph, her voice very low.

"Don't I?" The polishing done, Katara began to wrench the puppet's clothes back on, with rather more force than was either wise or necessary. "I'll bet that if your parents hadn't dragged you kicking and screaming to the station, you'd have sat at home in that absurd mansion for another year, hexing Muggles and rolling about in your own filth and having a grand old time."

Several seconds had passed before Katara realized that Toph wasn't going to answer. Frowning, she looked up from her half-dressed puppet and saw that Toph sat perfectly still, holding her own doll in both hands and staring at nothing.

"Well, I'm right, aren't I?" asked Katara, ruffled by the silence.

Toph began to polish again. "Think whatever you want, if it makes you happy," she said.

Katara finished with the puppet in her lap, set it aside, and reached over to take the next one from her pile. She had the strange, unsettled feeling of having strayed into dangerous territory, but — as often happened — her mouth continued to blunder on of its own accord. "I guess your parents must hate that you aren't in Slytherin," she said, unfastening tiny hand-stitched robes.

Toph snorted. "They hate that I'm here at all."

Katara blinked in honest surprise. "What?"

Toph glared at her in the dim lantern light, pale eyes narrowed and jaw set in defiance. "Do you actually wanna know? Because I can just sit here and let you run your mouth off, it's not like I care what you think."

"Go ahead," said Katara, her words clipped. "Not that it matters to me either way. I'm just curious what you could possibly have to say for yourself."

Toph ran her fingers along the doll's face, tracing the contours of wooden features. "My parents didn't want me to come."

"To Gryffindor?"

"To Hogwarts," said Toph, uncharacteristically sober. "They hid my letter. Roku charmed it so I could listen instead of having to read, but my mom got to it first."

Katara's brows drew together in confusion. "But…I don't understand, why would she-"

"I don't know what you heard," said Toph, sharp with irritation, "but I was born blind. Runs in some magical families, you know? Too much inbreeding. Nothing they can do. So my parents never let me leave the family estate, or meet other kids. They didn't want me to learn any magic. Thought it was too dangerous."

"But…that thing you do, with the echoes-"

"Taught myself. Had to." She shrugged. "There were bats in the attic. I figured it out."

"Oh," said Katara. Having stripped the puppet's clothes she now folded them unnecessarily, keeping her hands busy while she thought. "So…then how did you change their minds? About Hogwarts?"

"I didn't."

"But-"

"I packed my trunk, broke into dad's study, and went by Floo to Diagon Alley," said Toph, matter-of-fact as she polished. "Aang was staying at the Leaky Cauldron, so he helped me do my shopping."

"He didn't say-"

"I told him not to."

"Oh."

"I'm not an idiot. I know what people say about me, and I know you think I'm not good enough to be in your stupid house. But it's not like I can do anything about it, okay?" She shook her head. "You think I'm happy about this? Sure, I didn't wanna be in Slytherin, but _Gryffindor_? Goody two-shoes capital of the Wizarding World? Hufflepuff would've been better. At least I wouldn't have been the only refugee from an old Slytherin family."

"My brother's friends's with Zuko," said Katara. "He seems to like it there okay."

"Yeah, well…" Toph sighed and blew a lock of hair out of her face. "Kind of a moot point, now."

"I guess."

"Look…I didn't ask for this," said Toph. "All right? I don't know why the Hat sorted me in Gryffindor. I guess even ancient magical artifacts make mistakes."

"No," said Katara, very quiet. "I don't think it did."

For some time, the girls worked in silence. The only sound was the rustle of their rags, the rasp of their breath, and the steady ticking of the clock on the wall.

"I can't believe Professor Hama's making us do this without our wands," Katara said eventually. "We'd be finished in minutes if we could use magic."

"How does she even know, anyway?"

Katara thought for a moment. "There's a detection charm on her office, I suppose."

"Is that all?" Toph dug her wand out of her pocket and poked the air with it experimentally, as if prodding the threads of the charm itself. "Wow, she must think we're idiots. There were better charms than this on my bedroom." She muttered a series of spells under her breath, traced a few quick patterns in the air with her wand tip, then grinned as she relaxed. "That should do it."

"How did you-"

"I've been dealing with charms like this since I was little. My parents were always trying to catch me doing magic in my room."

"Ah."

"It's a lot easier to take detection charms apart when you've got a wand, though," Toph went on. "I was kind of dubious about the whole thing, but I guess Ollivander was right."

Katara took out her own wand and cautiously tapped the puppet in her lap. " _Scourgify,_ " she said. No alarms went off, and the wooden body gleamed.

When she looked up at Toph again, the other girl was regarding her with interest. The magical pings, Katara noted, were much quieter than before. "Can I see your wand for a second?" Toph asked.

Katara held it out with some reluctance, and Toph felt all along the length of it with her fingers, exploring the intricate carving on its handle and the swirls that chased each other to the tip. "Did Ollivander make this?"

"It's from Nuuk," said Katara. "Juniper and Sea Serpent heartstring. It used to belong to my mother."

"Oh." Toph handed it back. "It's really nice."

"Thanks."

With their wands to help them, the girls had Hama's collection polished to a high gloss, dressed in their clothes and hanging neatly in their cabinet before the hour was up.

"If we tell Professor Hama we're done this quickly, she'll know we used magic," said Katara. They were seated on the edge of Hama's desk, admiring their handiwork. "We'll have to kill another hour, at least."

"That's fine," said Toph. "I have to put the detection charms back anyway, she'll notice if I don't. My dad always did, and she's ten times smarter than him."

Katara shifted her weight, a little awkward. "Could you…you know. Show me?"

Toph pursed her lips as she considered. "I dunno," she said. "Will you teach me that water charm you keep using?"

Katara's mouth twitched into a smile. "Sure."

"Deal."

***

As far as Katara could tell, Professor Hama never did catch on, although she must have had her suspicions. If nothing else, she couldn't have failed to notice that all of the upholstery in her office was damp when she came to relieve them of their punishment.

The next morning, a notice was posted in the Common Room forbidding the transfiguration of historical artifacts.

Having read this, Toph immediately transfigured a suit of armor into an overlarge tea kettle, using one of the tapestries as a cozy.

Katara laughed harder than anyone.

***


End file.
